TODAY – A now-iconic image emerged from the Washington Navy Yard shooting Monday: A civilian helping a blind colleague exit the building to safety.

As bullets flew, Grant took his unidentified co-worker’s arm and led him out of the building. A photo capturing the moment was posted by Yahoo! News reporter Chris Moody on Twitter.

“As soon as we got outside the cafeteria doors into the hallway, we saw people panicked, running for the exits,” Grant told TODAY’s Carson Daly in an Orange Room phone interview Tuesday. “They were shouting. I couldn’t make out exactly what they were shouting, but I knew it was something serious. I told my colleague there that we were going to get out of the building, and I was going to help him because normally he’s got somebody with him there, and this morning he was all by himself.”

Aaron Alexis, a 34-year-old civilian contractor, is suspected of killing 12 people before he was shot dead by police.

Grant described the scene as civilians and military first heard the gunfire.

“I heard the first two shots while I was in the atrium near the cafeteria where I saw my blind colleague also,” Grant said. “After we heard the first two shots, we were wondering where the noise came from because sound echoes and travels there in an atrium area. You go up from the first floor of the building all the way up to the fifth floor. I proceeded to take his arm and led him into the cafeteria, and people started wondering as they also heard gunshots.

“We heard three more shots while we were inside the cafeteria and then we saw the alarms go off to evacuate the building.”